Saturday, October 11, 2014

The leaves may be beginning to fall, but our Breakfast Links are going strong - our weekly round-up of favorite links to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images via Twitter.
• The most popular girls names in Tudor England.
• An "honest" garment: the traditional Scottish shepherd's maud.
• The Litchfield Academy and schoolgirl embroidery in 18th-19th c. Connecticut River Valley.
• Decoding diplomacy: how John Adams and John Quincy Adams used ciphers & codes in their correspondence.
• Image: Marie Curie's notebook, 1899-1902, is still so radioactive that it cannot be handled.
• The last days of Edgar Allan Poe were almost as grim as one of his own stories.
• Rediscovered: previously unknown photo of three of General Robert E.Lee's female slaves.
• Infamous 15th c. prophesier Mother Shipton & how she has been sensationalized for centuries.
• The perks of being a 19th c. courtesan.
• Image: Rembrandt, the king of the selfies.
• The 18th c. merchant who was swallowed up by an earthquake but lived to be buried twice.
• The role of women in 1737, from virgin to widow (plus recipes.)
• Which photograph is the "real" one of the Bronte sisters?
• Shaker recipe for apple butter from 1871 uses all the edible parts of the apple.
* Hideous (?) Georgian hats.
• The ghost of Merry Andrew: a forgotten bodysnatcher tale.
• Image: An 18th c. street vendor with a basket full of tiny pigs made of pie crust.
• Had-colored etchings of 1870s Parisian street scenes.
• Nine perfect works from the illustrator who ruled the Mad Men era.
• Interesting way of considering history: determining your personal "mirror year."
• Americans celebrate the Empress of China, 1785.
• Image: Horses ploughing in Ledbury, the way it used to be.
• Author Elizabeth Gaskell's house opened after restoration to "former glory."
• Stunning illustrations of Victorian business life from London in 1888.
• Mandrakes: from mythology to museum collectible.
• The lost Gilded Age NYC mansion of oil tycoon Henry M. Flagler.
• O death where is thy bling? Victorian mortuary extravagance.
• Coffee houses, taverns, tea, and chocolate in Restoration London.
• Rarest of the rare: 15th c. black parchment.
• Image: Louisa May Alcott's writing room, where Little Women was written.
• How to escape the Victorian asylum of Broadmoor.
• Portrait miniature of the 21-year-old Mozart sent by composer to his first love - to be sold.
• Buried under a bridge in Paris: the misfit mausoleums of Montmarte.
• Bathers, bath-houses, and the law in 1921.
• Image: Music was the theme for Elsa Schiaparelli's fall 1939 collection.
• Despite how it appeared in Downton Abbey, contraception options for 1920s London women were not simple.
• Nineteenth century triangular bandage printed with first-aid procedures.
• How blind Victorians campaigned for inclusive education.
• Image: Just for fun: the best headline (and article) you'll read today.Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.

1 comments:

The topics of beach behaviour, beach clothes, bathing boxes and public baths has fascinated me in my blogging history. Partially because I am Australian and spent 3 months of the year on the beach. But also because we can tell more about a society from its leisure time activities than we can from official royal or military documents.

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A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.